OSU's $17M small business: Student Union generates key revenue while fueling student services

Friday, May 27, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

By Kirby Lee Davis

Kirby Lee Davis is the Tulsa Bureau Chief for The Journal Record. Contact him at 918-295-4982

Put 18 gray trailers together and what have you got?

Utoo, the star pinch hitter for Oklahoma State University’s Student Union. Its interlinked trailers delivered 18,000 square feet of replacement retail space for the university bookstore, food court and Apple Store while their normal sites shut down for OSU’s $63 million Student Union renovation and expansion.

“It really is a pretty amazing construct,” said Flintco Project Manager Mike Hume.

Since the 60-year-old Student Union went under Flintco’s brick-and-mortar knife last year, Utoo played a vital role in keeping alive several of its displaced operations. But Student Union Director Mitch Kilcrease looks forward to the start of this fall’s semester, when these many businesses should return to their newly remodeled homes within his complex.

By rejoining other departments that stayed put through the renovation, from admissions to food service to the 81-room Atherton Hotel at Oklahoma State University, Kilcrease expects the Student Union to not just regain, but expand upon the synergies that made it both a $17 million small business and the heartbeat of OSU’s campus life.

“We kind of went back in time,” he said of the sweeping renovation. “Dr. Henry Bennett’s vision was to create a place that really enhanced the student experience. We kind of went away from that and were more about business. We’re not ashamed of that, but we also wanted to go back and make sure we addressed our passion, which is campus life.”

Unlike most campus student unions, the OSU Student Union does not outsource its retail, food, vending or other such student services. Instead Kilcrease operates them with a staff that can run up to 400 workers, most stationed within the Student Union, a campus magnet attracting 1.5 million people annually.

“It would take six years of stadium sellouts to equal one year of traffic here,” Kilcrease said with a smile.

Some retail brands the Student Union operates through licenses, such as Chick-fil-A or Johnny Rockets, and others it created and owns. That would suggest Kilcrease sits on something of a gold mine, considering the potential the Student Union’s five self-branded concepts might have for expanding wherever OSU graduates congregate, but Kilcrease has no intention to branch out.

“We’re here to support the campus mission,” he said. “It isn’t about us making money from somewhere else. It’s about us taking what we have and supporting the academic mission of the university. All the services you see here are things students need to go to campus. A copy center – they need that. Oddly enough, they need an Apple Store. But we’re not trying to compete with the community.”

Kilcrease said that some people might have misgivings about a Student Union operating like a corporation, but the growing complex represents an auxiliary of the university, not a business enterprise.

“Our goal is not to get rich and make money,” he said while touring the still-incomplete construction site. “Our goal is to make money that we can reinvest back into student programs and services that they need on campus. We’re not looking at becoming multimillionaires. I think that’s a misnomer. We’re looking at how that money comes in and goes right back so that the campus doesn’t have to raise tuition, they don’t have to raise fees.”

That was part of Bennett’s plan from day one, when he crafted and built the original Student Union with a working kitchen and boutique hotel that not only serves banquet guests and weary travelers but also provides students vital hospitality and food service training.

Three major Student Union expansions over the years added to those capabilities while taking out a few dated ones, like the bowling alley. The current project not only streamlines internal operations and upgrades building mechanics but also enables the 480-seat Little Theater to host classes, which promises still more foot traffic.

“Students are always going to want these services and programs, so all we’re doing is taking a business enterprise and supporting that and reducing fees and tuition that would otherwise be passed on to the students,” Kilcrease said. “It’s been our history. Most unions aren’t structured like that. That’s how they used to be structured, but they’re not structured like that anymore. That’s actually a proud point for us because we’ve retained our principles and our history and doing it very well and helping our campus out in return.”

Although this latest project may not wrap until December, Hume and Kilcrease expect Flintco to finish most of the work by the fall semester. With its 33,000 square feet of new retail, office and meeting space, entryways and other amenities, Kilcrease expects the project to solidify the Student Union’s place as the most comprehensive operation of its kind in the nation.

“We’re often described as the largest student union in existence,” he said. “My colleagues often will argue with me on that, on whether we are or whether we’re not. What I do say is, while we may not be the largest by 5 foot or 10 foot this way or that way, by far we’re the most comprehensive student union that exists. No other student union that I’m aware of has as many programs and services under one roof as we have.”

Shutting down Utoo will further solidify that.

“It was actually a pretty amazing piece of logistics,” said Kilcrease. “Within 59 days we took something that didn’t exist and made it into a bookstore and food service area. And they didn’t incur one day of downtime. They closed down one day and reopened the next.”